The present invention relates to a scheduling, dispatching and data management system in which information is enqueued in a table based on a numeric priority value and dequeued only from the top of the table.
It is known that information can be inserted in a table based on some numeric priority value and removed therefrom on the same basis. One of the difficulties of the prior art is that if you have a table that is, for example, ten entries long, and you have only three entries therein at random priorities, it is difficult to locate an entry. Typically, this is accomplished by a search through the entire table which is only sparsely filled with information in order to find the entry.
A further disadvantage of the prior art data management systems is that they do not provide for the aging of entries. Assume for example a communications system for handling high speed lines such as data processors and lower speed lines such as teletype equipment. Generally, the higher speed lines are given the highest priority while the lower speed lines are given the lowest priority. With a straight priority mechanism the higher speed lines might continuously occupy the communication system and leave no time for servicing the lower speed lines. Therefore, it is desirable that some means be provided for "aging" lower priority requests so that they eventually receive service rather than being totally neglected.